County will oversee Mill Creek road work

March 8, 2013

The Washington County Commissioners agreed that the county will take construction responsibility on Mill Creek Road from Muskingum Township at their weekly meeting Thursday.

Mill Creek Road is located just off Colegate Drive, across from the entrance to Marietta High School. A widening and improvement project is planned for a portion of the road.

"The beginning of the street belongs to the city of Marietta, but at a certain point the road then belongs to Muskingum Township," said Commissioner David White. "The township already approved this transfer of responsibility for construction purposes."

What this means is that the county engineer may now help oversee and work on the project.

With Thermo Fisher having expanded recently and the travel from the Marietta City Schools bus garage, the road has taken quite a beating, said Roger Wright, county engineer.

"It's just a township road and it really wasn't ever designed for heavy industrial traffic," he said. "The plan is to partner with the city to improve both the intersection and the road."

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The road, also known as Muskingum Township Road 342, will be having work done on approximately 0.24 miles, according to the documents given to the commissioners.

The road will be widened into two 11-foot lanes with two-foot shoulders on each side. Other improvements will include better drainage, guardrails, resurfacing and pavement marking.

The money for the project is going to be provided by federal funds, according to Wright.

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Fact Box

The entrance to Mill Creek Road (Muskingum Township Road 342) is owned by the city of Marietta, but the road is Muskingum Township property.

Plans to improve the drainage, guardrails, resurfacing, pavement marking and to widen the road are set to begin in 2014.

The project's rough estimate from ODOT is just under $300,000.

It will be federally funded by a Appalachian Rural Development Grant.

Source: Washington County Engineer Roger Wright.

"The project will be paid in full due to the Appalachian Regional Development Act," said Wright. "The grant total if we can clear all the necessary federal guidelines is $469,500."

Wright said the project won't be started until next year.

"We want to be able to pave the road when school is out to help with traffic issues," he said. "We don't really have the time to get all the plans and preparations made by June, so we are just going to start next year."

The project could take anywhere between one and three months, depending on factors that could arise once the work has begun, said Wright.

The county engineer's office is also set to receive new radios and service through the state of Ohio.

After the business meeting Thursday morning, Wright met with the commissioners to inform them of the change.